The more I keep looking at our 8's cluster the more I wish that is what the one in the FD looked like especially with the feature to have a amber display or white. Has anyone ever done this before?

 

Just mod the FD one:
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/customize-your-oem-gauges-723611/
search, to my knowledge no one has, nor would it be worth it. Best to mod in aftermarket gauges, you know something nice and accurate? Prosport gauges almost PERFECTLY match stock gauges and are very reasonably priced.

 

for your purposes it is essentially impossible. The Rx-8 cluster runs on digital CAN signals.

 

I have been looking at doing that to my FD for awhile but I just love the look of the 8's cluster looks much more updated and the digital speedo is a feature that I like.

Can you please explain to me the difference in signal delivery between the two cars?

 

The short answer is that the Rx-8, like just about all modern cars, has a network of devices and controllers that communicate digitally. There are LAN's (local area network of computers), WAN's (wide area networks of computers), and in this case CAN's (Controller area network for smaller computers on a car etc). In most cases there aren't separate wires sending 12v and 0-5v signals.

FD3S:



SE3P:



I think those pictures explain it pretty well.

 

Edited: Never mind.

 

You'll find that cars will become much more "integrated" with the use of CAN bus systems, and therefore less user friendly and serviceable as the years progress.

My old BMW was all CAN bus, i-Bus, etc. I put a different stereo system in the car, and there was a data collision on one of the bus networks. Driving along at night and the headlights shut off, dash cluster shut down, all illumination dead. But it kept driving.

The stereo effectively killed the headlights.

One of the reasons I kept the FD and got rid of that BMW. And now very wary of owning anything built using a bus network.

 

You could get a 99 cluster. At least it has the 6 O'clock tachometer.